The story of making Virginia starts with the original Virginia that was built at the Popham Colony in 1607 in what is now Phippsburg Maine. This was the first English ship built in the New World. When the colony was abandoned in 1608, Virginia sailed to England, and in 1609 sailed across the Atlantic again to reach Jamestown. Virginia was the first of thousands of ships built along the Kennebec River.

In 1997, a group of neighbors in Phippsburg discussed creating a reproduction of the pinnace Virginia to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Popham Colony. This led to the founding of “The Virginia Project, Inc” in 1997, which would later become known as “Maine’s First Ship”.